<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Partners by perrythedeer</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22482349">Partners</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/perrythedeer/pseuds/perrythedeer'>perrythedeer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time &amp; Explorers of Darkness &amp; Explorers of Sky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Backstory, Fluff and Angst, Future, Headcanon, Tags May Change</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 13:20:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,908</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22482349</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/perrythedeer/pseuds/perrythedeer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kiptide has never been alone, always with a partner, though the pokemon with him changed a few times, he was always loyal to the end.</p><p>This is a story about the future, when the player character was human. It has head canons as well as is in the first person POV, in other words, you're Kiptide. Though you can mildly ignore that and replace it with your own hero.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Darkness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shaky hands, a quiet sigh, touch the leaves, you hate the stillness of them, the fact they don't even bend at your touch, the way they just sit there, droplets of water still sitting on them from the rainy week that hit just before temporal tower fell. A quiet sigh leaves your lips, and you bring a finger over the droplet, it feels wet, but it doesn't disappear or get on your hand. "Are you coming?" the voice is in your head, and a smile touches your features as you turn to look at the familiar face.</p><p>Dusknoir stares at you, tilting his head a little. Right, you almost forgot, the whole mission thing to check out that abandoned town. 'Treasure town'. Pokemon lived there, a famous guild- whatever that means. "Yea. Are you sure it'll be safe?" your voice is soft, timid, and Dusknoir raises his brow a little, in confusion- you can figure out his emotions easily now, being with him so long. You give a laugh at the look on his face. "I'm joking, Dusky, let's go" Dusknoir nods, and goes to lift you up, it's faster- and more fun, has been since you were a little kid and Dusknoir originally found you. Though he'd been a Dusclops back then.</p><p>He's carrying you as he floats along, tucking your hair behind your ear with a little humming like noise. You smile up at him "Dusky, will this place have the statues?" Dusknoir shrugs a little bit, he knows treasure town- of course he does, but he'd ran when it'd happened. "Maybe." he uses his telepathy openly, and you relax in his arms, nodding a bit "You won't get upset, will you? I know you miss your old home." "My sweet Riptide, i was just the banker, I had no attachments to anybody." he assured, and you sigh a little, nodding. "If you say so."</p><p>It takes a while of floating along, but you can see a town in the distance, and you squint the tiniest bit. "is. That a wigglytuff?" Dusknoir nods and sets you down, letting you walk alongside him. "The pokemon in this town liked to model their buildings after their faces, even I did it" he seemed to chuckle a little bit, his eye closing in the process. You roll your own eyes, letting your bare feet feel the grass turning to stone, it was weird- the way the grass didn't bend to your weight.</p><p>You decided to ignore it, taking quiet deep breaths, you <i> knew </i> how it was supposed to be, even if you'd never seen it. Your mom had told you when you were little, Dusknoir even told you at one point, full of excitement. </p><p>"Dusky..." Your voice is soft, and Dusknoir looks at you, a bit of sadness in his eye. He runs a hand down your back and presses into the bottom of it, letting you take a deep breath, steady yourself. "You'll see it one day, this treasure town place should be our first goal- then we go to find the lake guardians or- her" You nod, you know who he's talking about, though she'll be hard to find, the time travelling pokemon was rather elusive, even in the past.</p><p>You find yourself walking down a path, right near the- "Guild." you flinch a bit, you don't like when Dusknoir reads your thoughts, but it turned out helpful this time at the very least. "Right. the guild." You stare up at it, and walk up the steps, it's not to hard- being made for smaller creatures, pokemon. and you find yourself at the top, it's closed to any entrance, of course. Dusknoir joins you after a minute, and puts a hand on your shoulder "Do you want to get in?" You nod a little, determination forcing it's way into your expression.</p><p>Dusknoir moves forward, using shadow punch on the bars- and they break, leaving you to flinch and take another deep breath. It's okay. It's just- movement. you're not used to things moving, breaking- it. You shake it off, and Dusknoir and you enter the guild, moving down the ladders. It was strange, quiet, obviously used to be full of life, and you can tell immediately that these pokemon had never had even a hint of darkness in their heart.</p><p>Judging by the fact they're all frozen. There's a Sunflora and Bidoof standing and glaring at where the darkness would have come from, the entrance, the Sunflora had leaves around her, and the Bidoof was bearing his teeth- like they were prepared to fight. Dusknoir snorts, grabbing one of the leaves from the air and grinding it between his fingers. "Idiot pokemon, thinking they can fight against time." You lower your head in respect, you don't want to disrespect the dead, even if your friend did. </p><p>"There may have been a pokemon down here- darkness corrupts, Dusknoir. It may have been an outlaw." Dusknoir looks back at you, and shrugs a bit "Sunflora and Bidoof were always idiots. Sunflora wandering through town, always so excited- Bidoof was so shy, annoying really, barely even gave me money to hold, then complained when he had nothing to use at the Kecleon shop." You nod, of course, you almost forgot that Dusknoir had known these pokemon. It makes you think though. What pokemon <i> had </i> these two been about to fight?</p><p>Dusknoir doesn't even acknowledge the Corphish and Chimecho that had been rushing food up the ladder as you go down, and you try not to look at the Croagunk or Loudred. It makes you vaguely uncomfortable, you don't want to be around frozen pokemon, it made you so very upset to see- knowing these pokemon lost their lives, not even knowing what was coming. "Dusky..." "Kiptide, it's just some pokemon" You wince at his cold tone, and clench your fists slightly, looking away and hiding the annoyance on your face. The way he didn't even <i>care</i>. It bothered you. But you'd never say anything, you knew he was just mourning still. It had to be that.</p><p>Just blocking out his emotions, it helped him.</p><p>Your gaze goes to an open door, and step towards it, peeking inside. There's a Wigglytuff, and a Chatot next to him, pressing his head and beak into the balloon pokemons side, like he was trying to get him to move, but the Wigglytuff is smiling, one paw on the Chatots back, he looked much more like he'd just accepted his fate. It was depressing.</p><p>"The guildmaster was always weak." Dusknoir spoke again, and you turned to face him, anger building up in your body "Dusky, accepting your fate isn't <i>weak</i>, it's brave!" Dusknoir scoffed a little, and shrugged "What- no, you can't just shrug! Apologize!" "To a statue?" Dusknoir stares at you, his expression cold, it makes you shaky, Dusknoir scared you sometimes, the way he could brush everything off. You feel your shoulders tensing you. "That used to be a pokemon! You used to know that pokemon! Why don't you care?!" "It hurts to care about people, Kiptide" "You care about me!!" Dusknoir stares even harder, it makes you stop in your tracks, the silence after that statement cuts the air like a gunshot.</p><p>He turns away to leave, and you chase after him. Getting up to the top of the guild, you can't find him. "Dusknoir?" You call out after a moment, not hearing an kind of response. You're walking, feet touching the ground slowly, silently, fear is pulsing through you, you know you can't make it alone in this world, and you call for him again, you find yourself starting to run down the stairs, screaming your friends name desperately. You run down the path, finding a beach, the water is frozen, and a Skitty sits at the shore, staring at frozen bubbles in the sky.</p><p>You freeze up, taking a shaky breath and a step back- opening your mouth to call for Dusknoir again- and there are claws over your mouth, an arm around your torso "Are you insane? There are evil pokemon in that dungeon, stay quiet" the voice hisses, and you don't recognize it. You feel anxiety shooting up your spine, goosebumps spreading across your body, you barely realize that a ribbon is being tied around your eyes and you're being lifted. they're running fast, who <i>is</i> this?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Silence</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Your eyes are uncovered the same moment your feet touch the ground, you don't know where you are, and it's dark, and there's something behind you. You draw your knife- fashioned out of a rhyhorns horn- and turn to face what had grabbed you. The grasstype stares back, his yellow eyes glinting in the darkness, he stands up straight from what he was doing, and you could almost laugh, a three foot lizard thinks he has anything on a human, yea right-</p>
<p>The knife goes flying as a green blade hits it, and he's brandishing the weapon on his wrist, staring you down with an annoyed look. He crosses his arms after a moment, and huffs a sigh, his name slipping from him before anything else. "Grovvylee.." it's filled with disappointment, and you laugh nervously, watching the blade turn back into three leaves on his arm, and you force a smile, waving lightly "i'm Kiptide" you say after a moment, and Grovyle nods, wringing his hands, like he feels mildly guilty about something, and you simply offer a smile, he wasn't going to hurt you, if he was, he would've killed you on the way here, not brought you to what was likely his home.</p>
<p>"Grovyle, right? I- what are we doing here?" you ask without thinking, and he blinks at you, opening his mouth to speak before you realize. You can't speak pokemon, right. You think for a moment, and tap your foot, "Here- i, tap two times for yes, and one for no" you try after a minute, and the Grovyle raises as eyebrow, nodding his head- oh, right. He doesn't need to tap, you curse to yourself and smile as politely as you can. "Are you going to hurt me?" he shook his head with an offended expression on his face, and he holds his hand out to you, a oran berry sat in it. "... Is that for me?" you ask after a moment, and he nods.</p>
<p>You take it without hesitation, biting into it and enjoying the juice squirting into your mouth and down it, you haven't had an oran berry this fresh in- well, your whole life. You can almost melt when you taste it, a sigh coming from you after a minute. "Thank you, Grovyle." Grovyle seems to smirk at you, and he sits infront of you, then grins a little more. You stop for a second, then frown. "Wait. you told me to be quiet earlier." Grovyle nodded, and his grin grows "It was funny watching you figure it out" He hummed, leaning back on his hands.</p>
<p>You just stare at him, and huff "How are you talking anyway?" "One of my friends taught me, Celebi. It was difficult, but fun, and now here I am" Grovyle says it like it's the most normal thing in the world, and you take another bite from the oran berry, crossing your arms afterward "Celebi?" Grovyle nods, and then looks down, like it's a bad subject, you can see the grief in his expression.</p>
<p>A comforting smile touches your face, and you lean forward a bit, thinking about what to do.</p>
<p>"Why'd you grab me?" Grovyle snorts, as if it's a dumb question, and you puff up your cheeks in indignation. "No, seriously." he looks at you, and there's a look on his face that is a mixture of two emotions you'd only ever seen from yourself, and frozen pokemon who hadn't known what was coming. Fond and amused. He just shrugs "That dungeon was bound to be chock-full of dangerous pokemon, and I don't see many pure people around anymore- especially not humans." You blink, dungeon? You hadn't seen a dungeon.</p>
<p>You decide not to ask though, maybe it'd been that cave at the end of the beach. You just sigh quietly after a moment, your smile falling as you look away. He goes quiet, but you can tell he has something else to say, feel the tension in the air. You clench and unclench your fists. "Where's Dusknoir?" you ask, and he hums a little "I was gonna ask you who he was. Sounds like a ghost type." You nod slowly, staring at the cave wall.</p>
<p>"He took care of me" "Didn't sound like it. You sounded panicked, like he'd abandoned you" You find yourself messing with the hem of your shirt, and frown a little bit, shrugging softly "We just, got into a fight." "Over?" "He doesn't care about the dead pokemon." Grovyle bristles, and you turn to face him again, daring him to say his thought with a look, he stares at you.</p>
<p>"Sounds like a pretty bad guy." He doesn't even stammer, or really hesitate, and you hate the certainty in his voice. "You don't know him!" Grovyle nodded. "Perhaps I don't, but the only pokemon that survived the wave were those still in eggs- or those with darkened hearts." "and which were you?!" your voice sounds more angry than it should be, and the hurt look on his expression answers it almost immediately. You feel the anger drain out of you like a plug was pulled.</p>
<p>"... You've never seen the sun?" He looks away from you, and you immediately lean forward "I haven't either- i've never seen color- you're the brightest thing i've ever seen in my life- you're green right? A grass type?" Grovyle seems to start a little, like he'd zoned out the tiniest bit, and he stares at you. "... Really?" he sounds vaguely honored, and you nod quickly, your smile is back now, and it grows when you can see a smile on his face.</p>
<p>"Was Dusknoir not colorful?" You shake your head, a little sigh coming from you, but you don't let the smile fall "No, he was gray, just like everything else. You're- really pretty" You can see the red on his cheeks, and he looks away from you, moving his tail back and forth lightly "Thank you." </p>
<p>You're both silent, staring out the cave entrance and sitting together, it feels... nice, better than it ever did with Dusknoir, but you don't let that thought deceive you, this pokemon still kidnapped you, you shouldn't trust him in the slightest. But, feeling the presence of somebody physical with you was... nice, you'd admit that, but only that.</p>
<p>It takes a little while, but your internal clock kicks in and makes you start to doze off, the silence making it easier, you move a bit to lean where Dusknoirs hand would have been, feeling a solid shoulder tense up at your touch. You feel something pulling you close as the darkness fully takes you in it's grasp.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Plan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>You wake up to find yourself pressed against the grass-types chest, you can feel it rising and falling slowly with his breathing, and vaguely hear a heartbeat, and the warmth was new. Nice. It made you sigh a little, a giddy feeling rushing through your body as yesterdays events shot to the front of your memory. You tense a bit, unconsciously digging your nails into the Grovyles legs. </p>
<p>He shoots awake, tensing and pulling your arms away from him immediately. He's staring at you, and he relaxes, sighing slightly. "Geez, I didn't know humans knew scratch" he teased, and you blinked. You'd expected an angrier reaction, but he's smiling with amusement, and he ruffles your hair a bit, scooting away from you. "Wanna help me find breakfast?" He stands up, stretching a bit, and you follow suit, digging your hands into your pockets and nodding. It bothers you a little, how calm he is. Dusknoir would've gotten upset with you for knocking down a bit of his HP, no amount of yelling, but a silent treatment instead.</p>
<p>"You alright?" Grovyles voice is soft as the two of you walk out of the cave and you begin to roam, you just smile apologetically, and he snorts "Kiptide, if that had hurt me more then maybe one or two hit points, I would've killed you the minute I was even half-conscious." you nodded a little, you can somewhat tell that he's kidding, and it's nice, a joking threat is better than a real one.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>You'd been living with Grovyle for a few weeks now, and you'd grown into close friends fast, settling into a routine. You'd sleep on eachother, wake up, get some breakfast, and explore, go find a temporary place to stay, and talk until you both fell asleep again. It was nice, much better than it'd ever been with your old partner, Grovyle had taught you a few things.</p>
<p>For starters, how to use water to attack, you carried bottles of it with you and would splash fire, ground, and rock types with it. And to be careful, you couldn't count how many times you'd gotten cornered and he'd come to save you, a nervous laugh falling from your lips as you rubbed the back of your neck. He'd always come to save you though. It was weird. He wouldn't even be a minute late, you'd never gotten hurt with him. It was nice, not having pain rushing through your body every so often.</p>
<p>Now he was busy, fending off pokemon while you backed away from the fight, you didn't want to get hurt, and your water wouldn't do hardly anything to a bunch of poochyena. </p>
<p>"Kiptide, make a run for it, okay?" his voice is carefully calm, and you can barely hear the fear behind it, you don't want to leave him behind, but-... he always came back, he would come back. You take another step back.</p>
<p>Only to feel yourself losing balance and falling, you hadn't thought about where you were, hadn't checked, you cry out as you barely grab onto the ledge of the cliff, and something shoots through you. Darkness fills your vision, a dot of light, and than a voice.</p>
<p>
  <i> "Don't let go- i've still got you- come on!" you feel the persons grasp slipping, and you try to keep your hand around their wrist "I- i can't hold on!-" Whatever was dragging you away was sickeningly strong, tugging at every inch of your body. </i>
</p>
<p>Grovyle is pulling you up under the arms, pulling you onto solid ground and shaking you slightly. "Kiptide?? Kiptide?!" his voice is stupidly panicked. It's not like you died, what was wrong with him? Grovyle stares at you, eyes wide with horror, and you can see blood on his hands. He'd rushed to defeat the poochyenas, probably accidentally killed them in the process. You stare back, opening your mouth to speak "... uh, yeah? That's me!" a nervous chuckle follows the joke, and you can see tears filling his eyes. </p>
<p>"I thought you were hurt. You- your eyes were glazed and you- you were- you were slipping-" his voice is shaking, and sobs soon interrupt his voice, he's pulling you into a tight hug and keeping you as close as possible, looking behind him, you can see the dead Poochyenas, it's kind of horrifying, sliced open, nearly in half. You wrap your arms around your friend slowly, hushing him quietly.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>It'd happened again, you were near the darkened forest, and something shot through you, leaving you stumbling over and grabbing onto Grovyle for support. It was- him, rushing through the darkness, talking to himself. Time gears. The forest was.. green, was- this in the past? He hadn't been born when the world was still colorful, still moving... </p>
<p>"Kiptide?" his voice cuts through the vision, and you look up at him. You'd sound crazy if you told him what you'd seen, so you just smiled. "We're going to meet Celebi right?" you ask after a minute, and he nods, helping you steady yourself and running a hand through your hair as you forced a breath in and out. Right, meet the time travelling pokemon, of course, a wonderful idea, maybe she'd explain what was going on.</p>
<p>It was a long- but quiet journey, you didn't speak, just helping Grovyle with enemies and holding onto him, you still feel vaguely dizzy, like you'll give out at any moment, and it gets worse as you get closer to the deepest part of it. Grovyle starts calling the mystical pokemons name after a few moments, and you move to grab his hand, fear coursing through you for an unknown reason, it just- didn't make sense. Grovyle showing up like this and these... visions starting, you'd never had them before. It made you a little wary- not of Grovyle, never of Grovyle. He was your friend, he wouldn't hurt you.</p>
<p>He wouldn't want to hurt you. You knew that.</p>
<p>You knew that.</p>
<p>Why were you doubting him?</p>
<p>The thoughts stop abruptly as a flash of pink flies past you, and you blink, meanwhile Grovyle is smiling "Hey Celebi! Slow down a little!" The pink creature stops, and stares at the two of you, blinking curiously. You look at Grovyle after a moment, and narrow your eyes vaguely "Wait, I thought Celebi was gone, you looked like you were mourning her- back when we first met." He looks at you, and smiles</p>
<p>"Nah, she was just off in the future again, she disappears alot." Celebi puffed up her cheeks, and sighed a bit "Well jeez, You don't want me to disappear, you want me to see if we're still alive, make up your mind my dear Grovyle!" she scoffed, affectionate amusement in her voice, and you snicker a little at Grovyles red face "Well- right now I want you to stay, we have to talk to you" Celebis eyes focus on you.</p>
<p>"And who's this?"</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>You'd talked with Celebi till nightfall, until Grovyle fell asleep, leaning on you and snoring lightly. You and Celebi were still awake, and Celebi looked at Grovyle, sighing in quiet relief. "There we go... he takes forever to doze off sometimes!" she laughed, and looked at you again.</p>
<p>"So. You get visions?" You blink, and shake your head quickly, wringing your hands nervously, and she just giggles, flying over to you and circling you, stopping infront of your face to tap your nose. "Darling, I'm the time travel pokemon, you're getting visions of the past and future! I can feel it around you!!" You sigh, and force a little apologetic smile, only earning a head tilt from the mythical. "In the past it was called the Dimensional Scream- i think. There's a book about it that i've read- I don't go in the past often, it. Makes me kind of sad." </p>
<p>You can tell the 'often' means ever.</p>
<p>"So what is it?" you bring the topic back, and Celebi just smiles, sitting on your lap and giving a thinking expression, as if she had to remember what it was. You just wait, tilting your head and raising an eyebrow. "It happens when you're around time gears- or their homes! Like- this used to be treeshroud forest, it had a time gear allll the way in the back." she pats the ground with a smile, and you nod slowly. "It also can only be triggered by touch- and when you have someone you trust with you! It's cool- only a few humans ever had it though, so it wasn't well known" Someone you trust?</p>
<p>You look at Grovyle after a moment, why did it never happen with Dusknoir? It- didn't make any sense. You trusted Dusknoir, he'd saved your life. you'd always trusted him. Right?</p>
<p>"Visions of the future?" Celebi nods at the question "Yea! normally brief flashes- or just hearing voices. It's kinda creepy actually. But it can tell you a lot!" You slowly nod, and take a deep breath. That explained a lot. "I saw Grovyle in a colorful forest, trying to- steal a time gear." Celebis face falls, and she blinks in confusion, giving a little chirr at the same moment. "The time gears were destroyed. The only way he'd be doing that would be if he was in the past...But i watched his egg hatch." you lean back, confusion filling your expression and brain.</p>
<p>She looks the same, like gears are turning in her mind, trying to catch up with everything. "The... only goal of stealing the time gears would be to freeze time anyway... unless you brought them to temporal tower" You sit up a little, at full attention, temporal tower? But that'd fallen years ago, it was only a story to you as a kid, though Dusknoir talked about it a lot, about Dialga, and- "If you bring them there, you can stop the destruction of the tower." Celebi speaks before you can finish your thought, and you feel a grin of excitement crossing your face. </p>
<p>"Meaning we could fix time." Celebi nodded a little, and a look of shock enters her face. "Meaning you could fix time." she repeats, her voice nearly inaudible. She suddenly clapped her hands together, and she was up in the air, flying in circles and talking. "If I sent you and Grovyle back in time, than you and him could fix time, and this future would never happen- though we'd get erased in the process, but- it'd save everybody else!" "It'd be worth it." you spoke calmly, you had never really been afraid of death.</p>
<p>Besides, if this was supposed to happen, according to your visions, then why try to fight fate? "I'll do it." you nod, completely confident in yourself, and Celebi looks back at you  "Will Grovyle?" you nod, just as sure about that as about yourself. Grovyle would follow you to the ends of the earth, and he cared about every single frozen pokemon just as much as you did. He'd do it. As long as you were by his side, he'd do it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. We're gonna shine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grovyle was told a few months ago, and he'd agreed without argument, he had grabbed your hand and nodded and said he'd do <i>anything</i> to fix this timeline, and it was- a little endearing honestly, the determination in his eyes and excitement on his features, you knew he wanted to be a hero, it was- something he'd always wanted, according to Celebi at least.</p><p>The months had come and gone, and you and Grovyle had packed, Grovyle had grabbed as many reviver seeds as possible, though the two of you weren't sure they'd work on you, but that was alright. He'd grabbed a big bag, and food, and you'd been ready, you both had spent a night together beforehand, talking about the plans and trying to figure out how everything would go, talking for almost hours until you fell asleep leaning on his shoulder. It was quiet, and nice, and familiar now. You truly loved being around Grovyle, it was so much better than Dusknoir had been, even if it was different.</p><p>The two of you got ready to go the next morning, Grovyle eagerly packing the last minute items and looking at you with the type of excitement only a little kid can normally hold. "Are you still sure about this, Kiptide? You might get hurt." you snort, and go over to give him a little pat as you start to walk "Grovy, listen" you sigh a little, your smile faltering for only a second.</p><p>"We're in this together, alright?" You grip his hand after a minute, continuing to walk with him. Grovyle nods a little, then nods again, more sure of himself this time. "Right. We can do this." </p><p>You laugh a little, and lean against him as you walk. "We're gonna shine."</p><p>--</p><p>It goes without fault, the walk through the forest to find Celebi, near the end, something feels... off, and you move a little closer to Grovyle. He glances up at you, readjusting the straps on the bag and giving a little chitter of concern. It takes only a few seconds, and you drop, screaming out in pain and gripping your head.</p><p>
  <i> "And who are you, little one?" the ghost stared down at the child, and eight year old simply braced himself and glared as hard as he could, his mama told him he had to banish ghosts, yell at them to make them go away. "None of your business!! Leave me alone!" he clenches his fists, and the Dusclops chuckles carefully, holding out a hand "I'm Dusclops. I'm not like the other pokemon here, i'm not going to hurt you." He just glares harder at the pokemon, taking another step back, he can feel tears building in his eyes. "No! No no no no-" he starts shaking his head, digging his nails into his palms and trying to focus. "Go away!" he yells again, and the Dusclops sighs in annoyance. </i>
</p><p>"Kiptide?!" Grovyle is next to you while you're kneeling on the ground, tears starting to streak down your cheeks. Grovyle has a hand on your back, and is starting to pull you close. Your head feels like it's going to explode, and you're shot into another vision before you can even catch your breath.</p><p>
  <i> "Kiptide, come on, we need to run!" Dusclops is grabbing his hand and pulling him along. The ten year old follows his friend as fast as he can, glancing back at the Scizors chasing after them. Dusclops doesn't even think about it, but he's lifting the boy quickly, using shadow sneak to get farther away, faster. They eventually lose them, and Dusclops finds himself with a child burying his face in his chest, sobbing quietly. He stares for a minute, and sighs, leaning against a tree and running a hand over his hair "It's alright Kiptide, we're safe." </i>
</p><p>Grovyle is holding you against his chest, rocking back and forth with you and looking around warily, hushing you while running a hand over your back "Deep breaths Kiptide, come on, it's okay, it's okay.." You didn't realize you were crying, and you lift a shaking hand to touch your face, the wet feeling coming as a surprise. You open your mouth to try to speak, only a whine spilling out before it's happening again.</p><p>
  <i> He'd evolved, it was so so so cool, Kiptide had watched him beat up a bunch of Sableye, and he'd starting glowing and changing and turning bigger, and the eleven year old was leaning forward where he sat, gasping excitedly and clapping as much as he could, cheering for his best friend. Dusknoir turned towards him, an excited look in his eye, and he flies over, picking Kiptide up and spinning around with him. "You're a dusknoir!" "I am!" Kiptide touched his friends face, laughing cheerfully. </i>
</p><p>"Dusky..." the name forces itself out of your throat with a sob, and Grovyle just holds you closer. "Kiptide, he's gone, he left you, remember?" he sighs after a minute, and you choke on your breath, starting to grip at your hair and lightly pull on it. He can't be gone, he should've come back, why didn't he come back? The dizziness hits again, and you cry out in pain.</p><p>
  <i> "Kiptide, stay here, okay?" Dusknoirs voice is worried as he moves Kiptide farther into the crevice, and the pokemon turns away, he's talking to someone. Who's he talking to? It.. it made Kiptide uncomfortable, the way they were just talking, not fighting. Dusknoir always fought. Kiptide tried to peek out the tiniest bit, only seeing the dark blue foot- leg? of a creature with odd orange lines running up it. </i>
</p><p>"Breath, breath, come on" Grovyle holds you closer, he has your arms pressed into your chest now, and his voice is soft, careful. He doesn't want to upset you more. "Kiptide, it's okay, it's not- it's not happening right now, okay? Focus on the present, you're with me." You shakily look at him, the tears in your eyes obscure your vision, but you force a nod, and it takes a few minutes, but the headache and dizziness started to die down, leaving you huffing out a broken breath and untensing your body. "Are you okay?" Grovyle asked after a minute, and you nodded.</p><p>You had to continue the plan, right. That's why you came in the first place. You shakily get to your feet, and he gets up with you, letting you lean on him as you keep walking. "..What if we can't do it?" your voice is quiet, and Grovyle just sighs. "Kiptide, you can't go back on this now, we're gonna do it, we're gonna be great." "We're gonna die." your voice is almost silent, and Grovyle doesn't reply for a minute.</p><p>"...We'll die together" he states, smiling at you. You just stare at him, and nod quietly "Right... You won't be leaving my side for even a second, got that?" "Of course" Grovyle smiles a little wider, and you give a tiny one in response, looking into the trees.</p><p>Something seemed... off.</p><p>It seemed quieter than normal. Darker shadows...</p><p>"Grovyle get back-" you're too late, something lurches from the trees and attacks both of you, a shadow punch. Then it stops.</p><p>"Kiptide?!" You stare at the familiar figure, and push Grovyle more behind you. What's he doing here? Grovyle is readying a razor leaf, and you just smile as brightly as you can "Dusknoir?" the ghost rushes over to you, rushing his hands down your arms before settling them on your shoulders "Are you okay?! I lost you at treasure town, i thought you'd gotten killed!" You stare at him, and you can feel yourself tearing up again.</p><p>You shove his hands off. "Lost me?! You walked out on me!" You don't know if you're really mad or just- upset. You just know that you're shaking. "I'm sorry." Dusknoir is being genuine, you can tell, but you just shove past him. "Me and Grovyle have to get going, Dusky." You huff, and he blinks, staring at the pokemon walking behind you. "Did you replace me already?" a little head tilt, and you shrug </p><p>"He found me. He cared about me when you wouldn't. Now- we're going to save the world." You force confidence into your voice, and grab Grovyles hand to support yourself, he squeezes your hand lightly, tugging lightly at you "We should go..." You nod in agreement, glaring at Dusknoir. "See you soon, Dusky." and you turn to walk away from him. It takes a few seconds for everything that happened to hit you. </p><p>The fact you just... walked off on Dusknoir- he'd done it to you too, you were even now... Maybe you should tell him that they'd all died?... No, no, Dusknoir would stop you from going if you said that...</p><p>It doesn't matter though, and you smile at Grovyle to distract yourself "We're gonna do this, we're gonna shine, we're gonna be heroes." He nods a little, smiling lightly. "We're gonna shine."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Slipping</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The two of you had gotten to Celebi rather quickly after that, and the talk had been simple. She explained that you'd be shot through the time stream, and she'd never tried to send two people through it, so... to hold onto eachother as tightly as possible, don't let go. You nod, as sure as possible about this. Grovyle just moves closer to you, the protective nature of the pokemon shining through as brightly as it always had.</p><p>You'd spent the night with Celebi, the three of you discussed plans, what to do if you got separated, and Grovyle had eventually rested his head on your stomach and fallen asleep, you'd followed soon after, pulling your pokemon partner a little closer, moving his head to rest it on your shoulder. Celebi had eventually floated down to lay next to your torso, curling up and dozing off as well. It was nice, the three of you were friends, and you wondered for a little while whether or not Celebi would be able to save you from disappearing... but you knew it was impossible, changing the timeline that drastically.</p><p>--</p><p>You woke up to Celebi making you something to eat, gathering up a bunch of berries and herbs, Grovyle was already awake, one elbow on the makeshift table she'd set up. "So you're saying you've never been to the past?" his voice is curious, and you keep your eyes shut to listen to the conversation, Celebi giggles "my dear, I don't leave this time very often at all, only to check on what's needed, I prefer to stay where i can see my friends." </p><p>"I just don't wanna be going into this blind." Grovyle sighed, and you can hear the quiet swishing of his leaf as he shakes his head, and the little odd sparkly noise Celebis hand makes when it touches Grovyles forehead. "You won't be! You've got Kiptides dimensional scream to keep you safe, alright?" You open your eyes a bit, slowly sitting up to see Grovyle nod, there's a fond look in his eyes, and he looks over at you- it's immediately filled with affection, and he pats the spot next to him. "We're eating breakfast and then heading out!!"  he explained.</p><p>You give a little nod and crawl over to your friends, sitting at the table and treating yourself to the well prepared meal, it's nice, of course the fairy is good at preparing berries, that's probably all she's eaten- all anyones eaten in years really. This whole.. time being frozen thing made it hard to find food. You couldn't grow anything afterall, just had to scavenge and steal.</p><p>It takes a while, but you and Grovyle finish, and you make last minute checks of all your stuff as Celebi paces around in the air, flying in circles and occasionally stopping to think, it made you a little nervous in all honesty, if the time travel pokemon was nervous, than something might go wrong, and if something went wrong... that wouldn't be good.</p><p>"We're ready!" Grovyle speaks for you both, and Celebi stops, looking over and grinning, before gesturing with her hand to follow her, and flying deeper into the forest, where the timegears supposed to be.</p><p>You and Grovyle are almost enchanted by the blue portal sitting there, and you step forward first, keeping your hand tight around Grovyles wrist. A few more steps closer, and dizziness shoots through you as part of the portal sparks out and touches your leg. You feel yourself falling as darkness fills your vision</p><p>
  <i>  "hey! Wake up, wake up! Are- are you okay?" You can hear waves, and a voice, but you can't move yet, or speak, the person sounds worried, you feel paws on your back. </i>
</p><p>"Kiptide?" Grovyle is holding you away from the portal, a concerned look in his eyes. You stare at him for a minute, before looking at Celebi. "...We're ready" Celebi stares at you, and frowns, she seems doubtful, but... doesn't want to hold you back anymore. She sends you in, you holding tightly onto Grovyle.</p><p>The timestream is rough, sending you back and forth, and it ends up with the two of you holding onto eachothers arms, your eyes are squeezed shut, fear pulsing through you. It was a far journey, you knew it, but you thought it would've felt short. Grovyle held onto you a little tighter "We're almost there, just hold on." something feels familiar about this, and you really, really don't like it. The timestream was tugging at every inch of you.</p><p>You were slipping.</p><p>You tighten your grip on his wrist and open your eyes. Grovyle looks panicked, he knows he can't hold on much longer. He tries to pull you closer. "Don't let go- don't. I've still got you, come on! It's just a little farther-" He's trying to pull you close, but his grip is slipping, and you can't keep your hand around his wrist for too much longer. "I can't hold on!" "No- no- Your eyes are- are you okay!?" Grovyles eyes are watering, and tears are slipping down his cheeks, you feel dizziness starting to overtake you, it's too much. It sounds like it's raining. Thunder... "No no no-! Don't let go- please! It's just a little farther!" you try to tighten your grip.</p><p>It's not working.</p><p>"Come on- come on hang on, <i> please hang on </i> Kiptide-." you feel a sob coming out of your throat as you're torn away from him. You can hear his scream as he reaches for you, but darkness has blocked your vision before you can do anything.</p><p>--</p><p>You're in the sand, you can hear waves next to you. But you.. you can't remember anything, there are footsteps- pawpads? Right.. a pokemon...right. "Hey- what the- hey!! Wake up! Are you okay?!" there are paws on your back, and you blearily open your eyes, it feels familiar somehow, but you can't place it.</p><p>The sun is bright, and you blink up at the pokemons face. It's a skitty. Another familiar jolt runs through you. You still can't place it... is, this pokemon talking? You jump to your feet and take a step back, it clicks only then that you're not bipedal anymore, and you stumble forward. The skitty seems to stare at you, amused.</p><p>"...Are you okay Mr Mudkip?"</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>